Blog

Snoring aid, snore cause, treatment and lifestyle changes

Snoring aid, snore cause, treatment, and lifestyle changes: Snoring is the production of unusual breathing sound while sleeping. This sleep disorder is not limited to older people but can affect people of all ages and genders. According to a survey, more than 80 percent of the American population is affected by snoring. It is a common sleep problem in the USA.

Snoring occurs mostly at nights. Males are more prone to snoring at nights as compared to females. Although it affects both the genders, females are less likely to snore at nights. However, it affects people of all age group depending upon the underlying condition. It is less common in younger individuals, but when a person grows older the occurrence and frequency of snoring increases.

Snoring not only disturbs your sleep but also cause disturbance to the people sleeping around you. We generally feel refreshed after a good night sleep. But, after a messed up night sleep due to snoring, we don’t feel refreshed at all. Incomplete night sleep leads to daytime dysfunction such as tiredness and sleepiness throughout the day.

Daytime dysfunction and heart disease are the two most serious adverse effects of snoring. People those who snore a lot at nights are prone to develop these conditions so early in life. Moreover, those who snore with loud voice has the tendency to develop sleep apnoea

What causes snoring?

To find an appropriate snoring aid or to choose the right strategy for its treatment, we must know what causes snoring. There are several ways or the mechanisms of snoring. You can say the underlying conditions of snoring are many.

The more your throat is floppy and relaxes the more you tend to snore at nights. This happens only when we sleep. There are several other factors too that aggravate this condition.

Whenever we sleep, the muscles of our throat relax and become floppy and narrow. Our tongue goes to the back of our throat. During sleep, as we breathe in air or breathe out, the air vibrates the narrow, floppy throat. Whenever the airway vibrates, it gives rise a peculiar noise, which we call snoring. The more the throat becomes narrow the more vigorously we tend to snore.

In a rare case, the walls of our throat collapse and blocked, preventing the process of breathing. Such, serious condition is known as apnoea. This usually requires emergency medical intervention.

Factors that facilitate snoring:

To choose a right snoring aid for yourself you should be aware of the factors that facilitate snoring. Let us discuss a few important factors that facilitate the process of snoring at night.

Aging: Ageing plays a major role in the development of snoring. Try to consider using any appropriate snoring aid, if you are growing older. Whenever we grow old, our airway becomes narrow and floppy leading to snores at night.

Alcoholism: Alcohol is known for its relaxing property. It relaxes the muscles. Relation of the throat muscles leads to snoring. So, if you have snoring problems, it is advisable to not take alcohol before sleep or in the evening

Anatomical abnormalities: There are several anatomical abnormalities that give rise to snoring. An appropriate snoring aid can compensate for the problem arising due to anatomical abnormalities. The most common anatomical abnormalities include:

Nasal polyps

Enlarged tonsils

Deviated septum

Adenoids

All these abnormalities narrow the airway and aggravate snoring.

Respiratory infection: Respiratory infection causes inflammation of the respiratory tract. Inflamed and clogged airway can lead to snoring at night.

Allergy: Allergy of the respiratory tract can inflame the airway and aggravate snoring.

Sleep Position: There are some people who snore because they sleep on their back. But, this is a very uncommon reason than rest.

Medications: There are some medications such as muscle relaxants. Muscle relaxants relax the muscle of the throat and worsen the condition of snoring.

Obesity: People who are more obese are tending to snore a lot at night. So, it is advisable to reduce the excess body fat and maintain a healthy body weight to overcome snoring.

Lifestyle changes for snoring:

Not all the snoring types need medical attention. If the cause is not so serious one can treat the snore with small lifestyle changes. There are some remedies as well that really works well to curb snoring. So, let discuss some of the lifestyle changes for snoring as well as some remedies that really works better and popular among folks.

Reduce body fat:

Deposition of fat around the neck can be a snore cause. It is because fat deposition around the neck pressurizes the throat to become narrow. As we know narrow throat as more susceptible to snoring. Therefore, it is advisable to lose some body fat through exercise and proper diet.

Eat less and burn more body fat in order to maintain a slim figure. Weight reduction technique is a quite popular lifestyle change to cure snoring. This is a popular snoring aid for people.

Don’t sleep on your back:

When you lye on your back, the tongue base and the soft palate collapse on the back part of your throat. This can result in ratting sound snoring. To prevent this, you need to change your sleep position and sleep on your side. You can use a long body pillow as a snoring aid. A long body pillow will prevent you from sleeping on your back and help you stop snoring.

If you are still snoring even after changing your sleep position, you may be suffering from obstructive sleep apnea. If you encounter such problem and your snoring don’t stop after using a snoring aid or changing the sleep position, you must see a doctor for proper treatment.

Maintain hygienic environment:

If the underlying condition for your snore is the allergy, you must treat the allergy first. Moreover, you must adopt all the precautionary measures to treat your allergy.

In order to achieve that a proper hygienic surrounding is required. It is because dusty and polluted surrounding can cause allergy and that may lead to snoring.

Here are some points you should take into account to maintain a healthy clean environment to stay safe from allergy.

keep your bed clean: Bed has the tendency to absorb dust in it which can cause allergy. So, clean the dust particles trapped inside the bed.

Stop alcohol consumption:

Alcohol and other sedative medications can relax your airways. If your throat muscle is relaxed you are more likely to have snores at night. Those who don’t have a snoring problem can even suffer from snoring at nights. So, it is advisable to not consume alcohol before bed in the evening. Stop alcohol and you can mark a dramatic improvement in the quality of your sleep.

Diagnosis:

If you have a snoring problem, you must go to a doctor to identify the underlying condition. The doctor will ask you some general questions such as, how much severe is your snoring, how often you snore etc. He may ask you to go for the following tests

Imaging of chest:

There are various imaging techniques, such as X-ray, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and CT scan (Computerised tomography) etc. The doctor will ask you to go for any of this imaging process to check your air passage or deviated septum. It is because deviated septum and other airway problems usually cause snoring.

Sleep study or analysis:

A sleep study is also known as polysomnography. It is the analysis of sleep pattern and breathing during sleep. The doctor will ask you to go for polysomnography depending upon the severity of the snore.

It can also be performed at home. But, sometime the doctor will perform sleep study at the medical centre depending upon the symptoms.

In this process, many sensors are attached to your body and the pattern of your breathing is measured during sleep.

During polysomnography, the following information is recorded:

The pattern of brain waves

Stages of sleep

Breathing rate

The concentration of oxygen in the blood

Heart rate

Eye movement

Leg movement.

Treatment:

If snoring does not improve even after lifestyle changes and you have a more severe underlying condition, you should opt for treatment. The doctor will ask you to continue with the remedies such as lifestyle changes.

Moreover, the doctor will suggest you use some snoring aid, treatment, and surgery. Following are the treatment methods of snoring.

Oral appliances:

The oral appliance is a popular snoring aid used among people. You have to wear this appliance in the night. This will position your tongue, soft palate, and throat in such a way that more air will pass through the air passage. In short, this appliance will widen the airway and help allow smooth flow of air.

If you have decided to use an oral appliance as a snoring aid, you must visit a dentist. The dentist will prepare a suitable oral appliance that can fit well in your mouth. After the installation of the appliance in your mouth, you should visit the dental clinic at regular intervals. You should visit initially once a month and then once in 6 months or as prescribed by the dentist. Visiting the dentist is necessary to check the oral health periodically. Dry mouth, pain in the jaw and excess secretion of saliva are the common side effects you may encounter after using this snoring aid.

CPAP:

CPAP or continuous positive airway pressure is providing your airway continuous supply of pressurized air through a machine. The machine is a pump which will provide your airway with continuous pressure.

You have to cover your nose and mouth with a mask in this method of snoring aid. This snoring aid works great for people having obstructive sleep apnea. However, this snoring aid feels uncomfortable for most of the people.

Surgery:

Various surgical procedures are available to widen the airway and proper flow of air through it. Following are the few procedures:

Somnoplasty:

Somnoplasty is a surgical procedure where the doctor uses radiofrequency energy to tighten the upper airway at the back of the throat. This process is also known as turbinate reduction surgery. Somnoplasty is usually done on patients who have obstructive sleep apnea or chronic nasal congestion.

Tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy:

Tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy are the procedure carried out in severe cases of snoring issue such as in case of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a medical condition where you stop breathing while in sleep.

Tonsillectomy is the removal of tonsils. Tonsils are glands present in the back side of the throat. These glands help in the fighting infection by producing white blood cells. Adenoid glands are the lymphoid glands situated behind the soft palate in the roof of the mouth. Some time, adenoid glands are also removed through adenoidectomy in this process.

Palate surgery:

Sometime the doctor may ask you to go for palate surgery. This surgery includes removal of soft tissues of the soft palate. This will result in the formation of enough space through the air passage which can effectively prevent snoring.

Hypoglossal nerve stimulation:

The human body consists of different nerves. Different nerves have different functions. There is a nerve in the body that directs the tongue to move forward. Hypoglossal nerve stimulation process involves stimulation of this nerve, thereby preventing backward movement of the tongue. It is well known that the backward movement of the tongue can clog the airway and cause snoring.

Choose the right snoring aid for yourself

To choose a right snoring aid for yourself, you must identify the type of snore you are having. Identifying the type of snoring is not a difficult task. There is no need to consult a specialist for identification of snoring.

You can do it yourself with some guidance provided here. However, if you have sleep apnea, you must consult a physician or doctor to treat the condition.

Sleep apnea is breathing stops while snoring in the sleep. It is a severe medical condition that always needs to be addressed by a doctor. We shall distinguish different types of snoring and provide you the best suitable snoring aid for it.

Nasal snoring:

To choose the right snoring aid for nasal snoring, you must identify if you are a nasal snorer. If you are having difficulty breathing when you are awake, you are more likely to have nasal snoring.

If the underlying condition is something else than nasal problems, you will not feel difficulty in breathing while awake.

Those who have nasal snoring tend to have foul breath, dry mouth, and headache.

Cause: The primary cause of these types of snoring is deviates nasal septum, allergy in the airway or cold.

Snoring aid:

Nasal dilators or nasal strips: Nasal dilators or nasal trips widen the nasal passage and allow proper flow of air through it. This is one of the most popular snoring aids.

Neti pot or Nasal rinse: Neti pot or nasal rinses are the traditional forms of snoring aid used by folks since centuries. It cleanses the nasal passage and removes out dust and allergens. This snoring aid can help you in snoring arising due to cold, allergy etc.

Tongue snoring:

It is very easy to identify if you are a tongue snorer. If you snore only when you sleep lying on your back, you are more likely to have tongue snoring.

Actually, whenever we sleep. The base of the tongue moves backward and clogs the airway. This is usually seen in people having a relatively large tongue or retrognathic mandible also known as receding chin.

This type of snoring is also known as tongue base snoring.

The solution for tongue snoring:

There are various therapy used to tackle type of snores. The most common device used is mandibular advancement splint. This method pushes the lower jaw to the front and keeps the whole muscles around the mandible and throat intact. This procedure keeps the tongue in position and prevents it from falling back.

Position therapy: You can follow position therapy as well. Try to avoid sleeping in a supine position. Whenever you sleep in a supine position on your back, the tongue falls back. This sleeping position can obstruct your throat and can aggravate snoring. You correct the sleeping posture with the help of belts, vests, backpacks and anti-snore pillows.

Use Dragon Pearl: This device can condition your reflex and mind to hold the tongue in the position while sleeping. You have to place this maneuver below the tongue while sleeping. It will start training your nerves, impulses, and reflexes to keep the tongue intact.

Mouth snoring:

Mouth snoring is characterized by continuous muffled noise. Large tonsils and uvula can cause mouth snoring.

You can easily diagnose this kind of snoring yourself. Just check if you snore only when your mouth is open. If yes, you are a mouth snorer. Ask your partner to help you check this at night while you are sleeping.

Cause: The cause of the mouth snoring is narrowing of passage from the mouth cavity to the throat due to flabby tissue. Whenever you breathe, the tissue at these places vibrates and produces fluttering noise.

Blockage of nasal passage due to a cough or other reasons may trigger mouth snoring. It is because; you are more likely to open your mouth when the nasal passage is clogged.

Snoring aid: If you are looking for how to fix loud snoring, snoring aids for mouth can help you a lot. Mouth guards can prevent you from breathing through the mouth at nights.

You can also consider using nasal dilators. Nasal dilators are snoring aids for mouth snorer which dilates your nasal passage. This device can prevent mouth breathing during the night.

Throat snoring:

Throat snoring is usually loud and not continuous. This produces a kind of sound that is not in rhythm at all. This usually causes sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea is breathing stops at some interval of time. This is a more serious condition and requires a doctor’s intervention.

The doctor may use Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) to measure your daytime sleepiness. He will ask some short questions and diagnose your sleep disorder.

Cause: Whenever you go to sleep, the pharyngeal cavity relaxes and falls back into the respiratory tract. The oral cavity also relaxes and sinks backward clogging the respiratory tract. During this process, the air cannot pass and breathing stops.

Snoring aid: If you are looking for how to fix loud snoring, you can consider using some useful snoring devices.

CPAP therapy can clear your air passage and help you breathe without stoppage. This device is usually attached to a breathing mass through a hose.

EPAP therapy: EPAP is a snoring aid device used by throat snorer. This process involves placing of ventilated plasters on nostrils. By doing so, it helps your nose to allow the pass of air more freely.

When to see a doctor:

Those who snore aggressively with noisy, rattling sound may be suffering from sleep apnea.

Snoring is not a serious condition. But, if it is leading to sleep apnea, you must consult a doctor for its treatment. There are some outcomes of snoring that manifest as symptoms. See a doctor, if you are experiencing any one of these symptoms: